On This Date

U2 Concerts featuring performances from Songs Of Innocence

U2 has performed 140 concerts featuring songs from Songs Of Innocence.

Songs Of Innocence is the thirteenth album from U2. The album was initially released on September 9, 2009 in a digital format only. Recording of the album started with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno as part of the sessions for No Line On The Horizon. Originally that album had been planned to be a double album, but late in the process, U2 decided to cut the second part away and save it for a separate album, at that time referred to as Songs Of Ascent. The album was discussed for release at a number of points, with Bono first suggesting it would be released in the fall of 2009, and another close release prior to the tour restarting in 2011. However, the sessions recorded with Lanois and Eno gave way to work with a new producer, Danger Mouse, and it is he that is credited as the album producer. Additional producers listed on the album include Brian Epworth, Declan Gaffney and Flood. There is no production credit for Lanois and Eno. The album was recorded at sessions in New York (Electric Lady), Los Angeles (Shangri-La and The Woodshed), London (The Church Studios and Assault and Battery)and Dublin (Strathmore House).

The album was first announced during an Apple keynote address where the company was introducing the new iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch. At the end of the address, U2 performed the song "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" and afterwards announced the new album. The biggest surprise was not only an album was announced, but it was also released on iTunes during the annoucement. A second surprise? The album was made available on iTunes for free. Apple pushed the album into the accounts of 500 million iTunes users worldwide so that the tracks appeared in their "Purchased Tracks" list. This was met with some controversy and a week after distributing the album digitally Apple released information on a removal tool to take all traces of the U2 album out of an users iTunes account.

The digital release on Septmeber 9, 2014 was done through Apple alone and was only available on iTunes and on Apple's streaming service Beats Audio. On October 13/14 the physical version of the album was released. A deluxe version of the album not only carries a different cover but arrived with a number of new tracks and a number of acoustic versions of songs found on Songs Of Innocence.

A first single from the album was "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)", however as of this writing this has only been released as a promotional single and not commercially in a physical form or in a digital format. A unique picture sleeve can be seen on the promotional single.

Charts around the world did not list Songs Of Innocence when it was released due to the fact it was given away for free.